Survival Is Not a Strategy: Why African Youth Must Build, Not Scroll

Once, Africa’s brightest minds collaborated with governments to dream beyond the scars of colonialism. We built universities like Makerere — institutions that became intellectual beacons for the continent. We envisioned roads, hospitals, railways — not as symbols of donor generosity, but as declarations of independence and ambition. Our engineers, doctors, and thinkers weren’t chasing likes — they were building nations.

But that spirit is fading.

Today, our most creative energy is spent chasing clout. The brilliance that should be solving water shortages, streamlining health systems, cracking quantum computing or leapfrogging in artificial intelligence is instead poured into viral dances, gossip, clickbait, and curated illusions of lifestyle. We’ve become spectators in a global revolution — one scrolling meme at a time — while the rest of the world launches into space, decodes the genome, and engineers the future.

It’s not that Africa lacks talent. Uganda alone exports some of the most brilliant minds — but not to research labs or innovation hubs. Many of them become housekeepers, manual laborers, or nameless cogs in foreign economies.

This is not migration — it’s intellectual hemorrhage.

We fought to break the chains of slavery, only to kneel before its mirage — voluntary subjugation wrapped in opportunity.

We have accepted imaginary limits. One failure and we retreat into survival mode, as if survival was the summit. We don’t demand excellence — we fear it. We’ve convinced ourselves that “trying” is enough while the rest of the world races ahead.

And now, AI is here.

A new arms race has begun. The nations that harness it will define the next century. But if we don’t act now — as African engineers, leaders, and citizens — we may not even have the tools to participate. We will be consumers of decisions made elsewhere. We will import our future.

This is a call to reject passivity.
To demand of ourselves and each other more than survival.

The state must stop mimicking colonial policy with modern vocabulary.
Universities must become crucibles of invention, not factories of regurgitation.
And our youth must choose building over clout.

If you’re going to chase something — chase legacy.

Africa doesn’t lack potential. It lacks focus.
And it is time — past time — to wake up.